COVID-19, Racism, and Health: Changing Predictable Outcomes

COVID-19 may not discriminate based on race -- but U.S. health care does

Coronavirus and the Racist History of Pandemics

Additional Readings: 

• Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups
• The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus
• Race gaps in COVID-19 deaths are even bigger than they appear
• Institutional racism contributes to Covid-19's "double whammy" impact on the Black community, Fauci says

The Problem with Race-based Medicine

The US Medical System is Still Haunted by Slavery

WGBH Forum: Study in Medical and Scientific Racism In America

Experiments on Enslaved People

• How black slaves were routinely sold as ‘specimens’ to ambitious white doctors
• Beyond the Slave Trade, the Cadaver Trade
• This American Doctor Pioneered Abdominal Surgery by Operating on Enslaved Women

J. Marion Sims: Gynecological Surgeon," from “The History of Medicine,” by Robert Thom, circa 1952. From the collection of Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan

Gynecology - J. Marion Sims​ "Father of Modern Gynecology"

• Historian Uncovers Gynecology’s Brutal Roots in Slavery
• Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey: The Mothers of Modern Gynecology (podcast)
• The Surgeon Who Experimented on Slaves
• The History Of Gynecology Is Racist, Sexist, & Just Plain Scary

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

BW photo of a white male doctor drawing blood from a Black male patient as part of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study while observed by onlookers.

• The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American Male was a clinical study designed to observe the progression of untreated syphilis
• for 40 years between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service in collaboration with Tuskegee University (then the Tuskegee Institute), a historically black college in Alabama
• The study consisted of 600 poor African American sharecroppers from Macon County, AL, of which 399 were diagnosed with syphilis, and 201 who did not have the disease and were treated as a control group.
• The study was conducted without the benefit of patients’ informed consent. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In truth, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their illness. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance. Although originally projected to last 6 months, the study actually went on for 40 years (CDC, 2020)

Additional Reading:

• U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee
• 40 Years of Human Experimentation in America: The Tuskegee Study
• Relatives of the Men Who Endured the Syphilis Study Speak Out
• ‘You’ve got bad blood’: The horror of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment
• A Generation of Bad Blood

• How the Public Learned About the Infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study  

Henrietta Lacks & the HeLa Cell Line

• The HeLa cell line is the first immortal cell line developed for scientific research, and today it remains the most commonly used human cell line.
• The line was propagated from the cervical cancer cells extracted from Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American mother of five, who died from the cervical cancer on October 4, 1951.
• The cells were harvested from Lacks' biopsy, and were used without her knowledge or consent. 
• The HeLa cells are one of the most important achievements in medicine, as they led to such advancements as the polio vaccine

PBS NewsHour Racial ‘Care Gap’ in Medical Treatment

Why are black mothers and infants far more likely to die in U.S. from pregnancy-related causes?

Additional Readings:

• A brief history of the enduring phony science that perpetuates white supremacy
• Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites
• The BMI Is Racist And Useless. Here's How To Measure Health Instead